Little White Towels
by M-Maltesers
Summary: Tezuka stood still on the spot in the change room next to the onsen, stark naked and already a little cold with his back to the wooden lockers. Tezuka and Sanada, hints of BL.


Notes: Found this while browsing my tags today, so I thought I'd upload it here. Based on the prompt for 'onsen'. Originally written and posted in July of this year.

**Little White Towels**

**By Miki **

Tezuka jerked when someone called out his name. The voice was unmistakeable and the figure even more so once Tezuka had gotten over the shock and turned around.

He stood still on the spot in the change room next to the onsen, stark naked and already a little cold with his back to the wooden lockers.

Sanada's face and cap greeted him.

"Sanada," Tezuka greeted carefully. He swallowed, trying to regain his composure; trying to pretend he wasn't secretly horrified that Sanada Genichirou was standing in front of him and was equally naked, but for a small white towel strategically placed in front of his groin.

Tezuka turned back around, fumbling most inelegantly for his own in his locker, fishing it out and panicking for a moment. He tried to pretend he wasn't showing his backside to the former Rikkaidai vice captain and that he couldn't feel the heavy gaze staring into his back.

When he'd agreed to take a weekend off studying and come to a ryokan with his parents, running into Sanada had ranked as highly on his list of possible occurrences as had running into a brown bear, and he suspected he'd have preferred the latter.

Likewise, Sanada hadn't expected to see Tezuka here, and he was more than grateful for the fact that he'd still left his cap on his head. It made him feel just a little bit less naked, despite the fact that he could swear there were goosebumps on his backside.

"Are you going outside?" Sanada asked.

Tezuka glanced at him, wondering if Sanada was going to the bath inside or outside, and whether or not he expected they were going to go together or not. "I don't have a particular preference," he answered, hoping that would give Sanada the freedom to tell him which bath he intended to go to so that Tezuka could tell him he'd go to the other.

Bathing with Sanada was not on Tezuka's agenda.

"Do you come here often?" Sanada asked in return.

Oblivious to the way Tezuka suddenly glanced at him, not knowing whether Sanada realised the rather dubious meaning of his words, Sanada ploughed on. "The outside bath is usually hotter, but it's much nicer out there especially at this time of year."

Tezuka glanced towards the windows when Sanada mentioned the weather, noting that there were indeed tiny snowflakes falling down, sprinkling the scenery with white. He wouldn't have minded being outside or inside personally, but he was still waiting to excuse himself from Sanada.

Bathing was perfectly fine as a bonding exercise, but he really wasn't interested in bonding with Sanada, much less so doing it naked and in a bath.

"It's this way… to wash up," Sanada gestured, pointing to the hallway leading to the bathing room.

Tezuka realised then Sanada had decided they were bathing together and only just stopped himself from sighing in resignation. Instead, he frowned a little, noticing Sanada hadn't made any move to remove the hat adorning his head.

"Are you bathing with that on?" he asked.

"No," Sanada answered, voice sounding strained as he pulled off his hat reluctantly and put it into his locker. He glanced back at it twice as they walked down the corridor and Tezuka suspected it could possibly be separation anxiety. Sanada's mother probably had a hard time convincing him to ever throw it in the washing machine and Tezuka imagined the hat would probably have to sprout fungi before Sanada surrendered it.

Washing was an awkward affair.

Tezuka felt silly sitting on the small plastic stools, trying to wash himself in the most inconspicuous manner possible, while Sanada seemed to have no problem doing everything in plain view.

He probably came here regularly, Tezuka thought, judging by the way he'd posed those questions before. He seemed to know his way around too, and when Tezuka was busy trying not to wince because he'd gotten shampoo in his eyes, Sanada took his shower hose from his hands and held it above him so Tezuka could get the suds out.

He tried to convince himself that he was not trying to stare sideways at Sanada's groin out of the corner of his eyes. It was only curiosity anyway.

It turned out that the inside bath was full of old men anyway, so Sanada led the way out along cold, cold slate steps to the outside bath, where the air felt as though it was about minus five degrees, and the water felt to be above forty.

Tezuka dipped his foot in it first and stepped in carefully, sitting down with his towel in his lap. He tried not to look at Sanada as he stepped in beside him, sitting down too close for Tezuka's taste. His instincts told him to shuffle away, but his politeness kept him from doing so.

"You should remove your towel," Sanada pointed out, deliberately not looking Tezuka in the face.

"Yes," Tezuka answered, willing his body not to look so stiff in front of Sanada. He jerkily pulled his towel from his lap, squeezing out a little of the water and then placing it on his head. Then he closed his eyes and tried to ignore Sanada beside him, hoping the other boy wouldn't want to talk at all.

They might have still been on the high school tennis circuit, but they were still on opposing teams and Tezuka could only imagine what Oishi would say if he knew Tezuka had been bathing at the onsen with Sanada on the weekend.

Sanada cleared his throat, surprising Tezuka. He resisted the urge to glance sideways and instead kept his eyes closed, trying to tell himself that if he wasn't looking at Sanada, it meant he wouldn't know if Sanada were looking back at him either.

"I thought onsen were supposed to relax you."

Tezuka felt Sanada shift in the water beside him, slightly annoyed that he'd broken the silence. He cleared his throat. "Yes, I do believe that's the idea."

Sanada chuckled. "You don't look very relaxed, Tezuka."

Tezuka felt uneasy all of a sudden and turned his head to face Sanada, hiding his confusion and the growing nervousness in his chest. "I am relaxed," he said firmly, ignoring his muscles knotting themselves and the kink he was starting to feel from sitting up so straight.

Sanada didn't seem to believe him, raising his hand as though to clasp Tezuka's shoulder, and then instead removing his towel from his head and tossing it aside.

(S)

"Will you be here tomorrow night?"

Tezuka nodded. They would be at the ryokan tomorrow night, though whether or not he wanted to bathe again with Sanada, enduring all the awkwardness and lack of conversation was entirely another thing. He'd rather have done it with his father, yet his parents, despite having chosen a ryokan, were more interested in the food offered than the bathing.

"I'll meet you tomorrow night then," Sanada replied.

The corners of his mouth curved up in what Tezuka could have sworn was a sneer, but which could have been an attempted smile.

"Tomorrow then," Tezuka repeated, a vision of awkwardness that Sanada could never have before imagined from his rival. "Good night Sanada."

Sanada stood awkwardly in his loose cotton kimono, wondering if he had just acquired a date or lost one, wondering if his smile hadn't quite worked. He watched Tezuka practically speed walk away from him, and he resolved to work on it.

"Don't forget to bring your towel!" Sanada thought to call out.

Tezuka only walked faster.

.fin.


End file.
